| Home |
Arthur Bullard's Diary |
I went to Cambridge this weekend to meet Patricia this weekend, and to give Janet a few tips on Morris Minor ownership.
Patricia is a 1953 split-screen series II minor, and a gorgeous one at that. Janet even allowed me a test drive. With an 803cc engine, it's a little more relaxed experience than my 1098cc morris. One proceeds rather than drives. And by now, she (they ;) ) may have forgiven me for the awkwardness while I got used to the different gearchange of the early minors.
We took Patricia and my MG to the Cambridge Morris Minor Owners' Club meet, at the Cambridge Museum of Technology. An impressive turnout, actually. I think there were 17 Minors, a Wolseley Hornet and two MGs (mine and a BGT V8). The Minors present varied from the pristine to a rather sad-looking traveller with mossy wood and cracking paint.
The museum had a few interesting oddities, most of which you'll see in the photos. The main attraction was a gas-powered internal combustion pump for city drains, from 1909. It works, in an impressive WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHOOSH THUNK WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP way. There was also a very early electron microscope (the origin of which I failed to read), and a one-person air-raid shelter outside. Just a little claustrophobic.
See also Janet's account.